Wireless communication systems comprise, in general, a radio access network. The radio access network comprises a plurality of Radio Base Stations, RBSs, which act as access points for User Equipments, UEs. A UE wanting to make use of a service provided by the wireless communication system, or wireless communication network, does so via an RBS to which the UE is currently connected.
An RBS has a coverage area associated to it, which is also referred to as a cell. It shall be noted that the coverage area of the RBS may comprise a plurality of cells and not just one. However, hereinafter, the coverage area of the RBS is referred to as a cell, or the cell, and it shall be understood that a/the cell may be a plurality of cells. In general, any UE being located within a cell of a specific RBS will be provided with service via this specific RBS.
The very nature of a wireless communication network is that UEs move about resulting in a varying number of UEs being connected to individual RBSs over time. Furthermore, depending on the time of day, the amount of traffic, also referred to as load, generated by the varying number of UEs in individual RBSs vary quite substantially. This results in substantial load level variations in individual RBSs over time.
Most operators of wireless communication networks strive to be able to meet the highest demands on traffic load levels. In other words, at so called peak hours where the traffic load is at its highest, the number of UEs not being provided with service should be minimised. One way to make sure that no UE is ever denied service is to over-dimension the radio access network. Such a solution is very costly and will result in a lot of capacity being wasted at times other than during peak hours, thus the solution is not preferable.
Another solution is to make prioritisations within the RBS between the incoming traffic in situations of high traffic load. One solution has been to categorise different UEs in a way that some UEs are associated with high priority and some with low priority. In such a solution, in case the traffic load reaches a relatively high level such that the RBS needs to start making prioritisations, high priority UEs are prioritised, or favoured, before low priority UEs.
In such a solution, a high priority UE may e.g. pay more for his/her subscription compared to a low priority UE. However, the solution with high and low priority UEs suffers some drawbacks. The high priority UE may make use of a service not being time critical, thereby not needing to be prioritised. At the same time, a low priority UE may want to make use of a service being time critical, thereby needing to be prioritised. Since the high priority UE will be favoured compared to the low priority UE, the low priority UE may be denied service due to high traffic load even though the high priority UE would not be affected by his/her service being somewhat delayed.